These are perilous times.

     The world as we know it is up for grabs, the whole Western Civilization thing hangs by a hangnail, and we are angry. Very angry. Anyone who doesn’t have an opinion hasn’t been paying attention. Social media is on fire, with each side trying earnestly to explain themselves (and there are multiple sides, not just two. It has facets, like an ugly jewel.)

     What place does the Christian writer have in all of this?

     I can’t answer for you, and I respect whatever position you’ve taken (or all of them, see above, ugly jewel). For me? I don’t post political. Period.

     When I knew I was going to be a published author, a colleague advised me, Back in The Mists of Time, to keep my politics off social. She explained that a strong political stance might cost me a reader or two, or three or five. She pointed out that in this great country of ours, people, even those in the Household of Faith, don’t always agree.

     I pondered her words in my heart. Did I want to risk alienating a potential reader just to have my say? What was my “say,” anyway? Was it a political stance that mattered — or a message of salvation that mattered more? Did I want to risk losing a reader to politics, when my ultimate goal was to win them to God?

     Was the underlying goal of my work red state, blue state or the Cross?

     I had a live experience with this when I published my second novel, “Settler’s Hope,” with Pelican/White Rose. The story takes place in a logging camp in the Oregon woods, in 1847, and it originally had a young woman delivering a sermon to a ragtag congregation of emigrants. She was the only one in the community who had enough Bible knowledge to do it. She was practically the only one who could read! But an astute editor pointed out that a woman preaching might not fly in certain parts of the country, or certain denominations. Did I want to risk losing those readers?

     I did not. We walked it back, made it a Bible study, and took the edge off the actual “preaching.” My editor saw the bigger picture here. “If meat make my brother to offend…” Not on my watch.

     A secondary element: whatever I say has most likely already been said. A tertiary element: whatever I say, I’m probably not going to convert someone on Social. If they’re on, they already have opinions.

     But first and foremost, it’s the Cross.

     And that’s my take on politics and posting. I have strong opinions about what’s going on in my country and the world. If you want to know, ask me in person. And I’m not saying you shouldn’t post about what’s going on in this imperfect world. If you can give an elegant, reasoned defense of your position on current events and keep your friends and your sanity, do it. We need your voice.

   We just don’t need mine.

   There’s a bigger picture here, the Biggest Picture, of why we write and who we write for.

Kathleen Bailey writes full-time from her home in New Hampshire. She produces Western historical romance for Pelican/White Rose, Christmas contemporary romances for Elk Lake, and nonfiction local history for Arcadia Publishing. She is married to Rev. David Bailey and they have one adult daughter.

For more information check out her BRRC author page or visit www.kathleendbailey.weebly.com or Kathleen D. Bailey on Facebook or LinkedIn.